The koala is one of the national symbols of Australia, and an endangered species, so it should come as little surprise to anyone that what Australian officials did with nearly 700 of them last year was kept hush-hush.

The shocking part of the story is what they actually did.

According to The Telegraph (U.K.), Australian authorities have killed almost 700 koalas in secret culls to prevent overpopulation in a coastal bushland region after members of a starving colony were seen “falling out of trees.”

The euthanasia operations were conducted between September 2013 and March 2014 in a colony of koalas in gum woodlands at Cape Otway, about 140 miles southwest of Melbourne. The koalas were taken from trees, sedated and assessed by veterinarians before being killed by lethal injection.